I’m always amazed at how backpacker towns all seem the same — and Manali is what you could describe as a “destination backpacker town”. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Yangshuo, China; Chalten, Argentina; or Tamarindo, Costa Rica; these places are all about making hippies feel good about themselves for traveling while subtly providing all the comforts of back home (cheap drugs, food that won’t make you sick, and the ability to check your email every ten feet).  Anyways, it took only a day in Manali to buy food, arrange a cook, (Maybe the only fortunate legacy from India’s two centuries of colonial rule is that most Indians speak at least a little English) and then we were off again. This time it was a 10 hour drive over the Rhotang Pass and down into the Lahul Valley: basically a ten hour, 4x4 mission in a jeep to reach Tingrit.  

The Miyar Valley is definitely off the beaten track. Over the past ten years, Italian, Spanish, and Slovenian climbers have visited the area, but only at the rate of one or two expeditions a year. Nobody in Tingrit has even thought to open up a tea house yet, so we camped on the lawn of the local grade school. Farming is the main source of income in the Miyar  – particularly a wonderfully fat strain of green peas that are cultivated in terraced gardens, then harvested and sold all over India.  Higher up, the valley is used as grazing lands for thousands of goat, sheep, and cattle.